Morning journal and courier., 1887-03-21
News by Telegraph FROM ALL QUARTERS. IRELAND'S COERCION. Liberal Leaders Arranging
 For Consultation. GLADSTONE REMAINS FIRM. Examining Plans For Agra
 rian Reform. A RIOT IN A CHURCH. Policemen Badly Used By
 The Mob.
THE IRISH QUESTION.

THE IRISH Q QUEST1ONs
 Liberal Leaders Arranging for a Gen.
 eraI ConsuItation-0pPosi by an
 old Time Gladstone Br1gede-Parlia-
 ment to Adjourn for Easter HoH-
 days.
 | LONDON, March 2O.-As the time ap- proaches for the introduction of the govern
 ments coercion bill the Liberal leaders are
 arranging for a general consultation at which
 a concensus of opinion may be expressed concerning the future. A plan of attack on 1 government measures will be decided upon and the disorganized ranks of Mir. Glad ! stone's followers will be closed up and once more formed into compact body with the
 old leader in his place at their head. The | old forms of party control will again be en- | forced and the Liberal whips will resume | their functions. All sections of the opposi-
 ton unhestitatingly promise their support to
 the leaders if vigorous programme is adopt
 ed and the unfolding of the Tory plan for pacifying Ireland at the bayonets point will be opposed by an old time, well organized Gladstone brigade. At the cabinet council yesterday the coercion proposals of the gov ernment received their final consider ! ation and were moulded into their
 form in which they will be pre- 1 sented to the country. It was also 1 decided that on Monday W. H. Smith, the
 Tory leader in the House, should state the governments programme to the House. He | will also announce the time decided upon for 1 the introduction of the crimes act. Until the provisions of this measure are definitely
 known there will be no prearranged concert ] ed action between the Glads tonians and Par l nellites. The temper shown by Right Hon. 1 orable A. J. Balfour, chief secretary for Ire l land, in Friday nights debate, indicates that there is no desire to conciliate the Parnell- ites. The policy suggested by Balfour is rather one of exasperaton and coercion. It leaves no room for doubt that there will be . notable extension of the powers of the
 magistracy in suspending jury trials and in the suppression of newspapers. This de- mand for more strong governments is one which strain to the utmost the bonds which l hold the Unionists to the Conservative alli- ance. Should the government demand that the House debate daily on the bill until it is settled the Parnellites propose to refuse their sanction. MT. Parnell is prepared to move to amend but prefers to leave the earl y stages of the opposition to be conducted by the Lib eral leaders. The debate will certainly cover ten days even under the operation of the closure rule. The ministers are calculating on a majority of eighty five for the passage of the bill. The failure of tho negotiations for reunion of the Libe al factions combined with MT. Chamberlaine's recent assurance that the Unionists stood ready to assist the government in suppressing infamous prac- tices on the part of Irish malcontents prom ises to secure the adhesion of the bulk of the Unionists to the governments proposals. Still many Unionists are secretly hostile to further coercion, and are likely to abstain from voting even though they may not add their strength to the other side. The opposi- tion will be glad if the governments majori- ty is reduced sufficiently to show that the Unionists are disunited over the question of coercion.
 MT. Gladstones speech ot Thursday is in- terpreted by his followers as ths first step of personal and earnest endeavor on his part to effect reconciliation. If Messrs. Chamberlaine ard Harrington will as sent to resume parleyings cn this point MT. Gladstone is ready now to communicate directly with them, dispensing with the distorting mediumship of Sir Will liam Harcourt. MT. Gladstone'e vague refer ence to the substitution of another scheme of land purchase for his previous bill was an allusion to MT. Chamberlaine's plan. Lord Harting has suggested the Chamberlaine scheme to Lord Salisbury as feasible solu- tion of the agrarian question and as the leaders on both sides appear inclined to adopt the plan there is great interest felt as to what its precise character is. Your correspondent obtained a moments inter- view with MT. Chamberlain yesterday and privately questioned him, but was informed that the present was considered inopportune for revealing the details of the proposition. MT. Chamberlain was only willing to say that the plan differs from Mir. Gladstone's land purchase bill and from Lord Ash burne's land pure act in that it relieves the taxpayer of the burden of land purchase and puts the risk upon the Irish landlords. This brief statement, taken to- gether with various indications obtainable elsewhere, point to the probability that the Chamberlaine scheme is an application to Ireland of the system of peasant purchase in certain parts of Germany, notably in Saxe- Coburg, where land banks advanced money on behalf of tenants under plan which di- rectly concerned the tenants io the safety of the banks. The ministers are un- doubtedly examing plans for agrarian reform in this direction and it is just possible that they may yet trump the Gladstonian Irish policy by great scheme completely revolutionizing land tenure in Ireland which they claim will on it's intro duction be approved by both Liberal and Radical Unionists. Meantime Mr. Glad stones position in which he insists that the Irish parliament shall deal with Irish land, remains unchanged; while the Unionist sec- ction of the Liberal party hold that agrarian reform must precede local government re- form.
 Parliament will adjourn April for the Easter holidays for fortnight if the coer- cion bill shall have been passed by that time, but the adjournment will be for a week only if the fate of that measure remains un- decided.
 The Times failed to draw the Parnellite members whom it so severely attacked in it's articles on Parnellism and crime into actions for libel. The Parnelites choose rather to en- dure these islanders than waste their energies in attempts to call the "Thunderer'' to ac- count for it's slurs and innuendos.